Matchmakers Trilogy: A Message Sent
by MinaP
Summary: Third installment of Young Jedi Crystals Series - Star Wars/Sailor Moon/Real Life crossover - You definitely need to read The Force is Always With Us and Sailor Warriors


MatchMakers: A Message Sent

Author: JediSenshi (ICQ# 29448449) email: minap@zwallet.com

Distribution: Anywhere, just keep my name with it...

Disclaimers: The Star Wars Galaxy and characters (Not to mention the concept of Jedi Knights...)belong to George Lucas and LucasFilm, Sailor Moon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi and Julia, Gayle and Leanne belong to themselves.

  
  


Author's Notes: Hey, they aren't here often, so read 'em! This is part of a planned trilogy spanning over several months. Basically, we figured trilogies were a part of the Star Wars galaxy, so we should have one as well. For those of you who aren't familiar with Callista, we try to explain, but to know the situation to its full extent, it would be best to read Children of the Jedi by Barbra Hambly.

  
  


****MatchMakers Trilogy

A Message Sent

  
  


A few weeks after the incidend during the training hike, the odd virus that drained the trainees of their energy dissappeared. Julia let Gayle, now also known as Sailor Moon, in on the origin of the virus, and of course, Gayle had guessed as much.

Julia, having just received the shipment of sorely needed furniture, was folding and putting away her clothes when Gayle came into her room through the crawlspace in the floor they'd made where the gash had been.

"So much for the pile-on-the-floor system huh?" Gayle grinned. Julia just stuck her tongue out at her friend.

"Anyway, I heard there's a nest of pittens over at Blueleaf Cluster Temple," Gayle announced as she stood and brushed off her knees. 

"Pittens?" Julia asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Cats, but in wacky colours," Gayle gave the quick explanation. At this, Artemis opened one of his eyes and looked over at Julia from where he'd been lazing on her bed.

"You're not thinking of getting another cat, are you?" he asked, worried. 

"You can never have too many cats," Gayle and Julia said in unison.

Julia smiled and went over to scritch Artemis behind the ears, "Don't be paranoid Artemis," she assured him, "besides, I couldn't afford another cat, if it eats half as much as you do."

Gayle and Julia giggled, then left to see the pittens. During the walk, the two friends pondered the mysteries of the universe. In other words, they gossiped, mainly about guys.

"So what's your prediction for Zekk and Jaina?" Julia asked, ducking under a branch.

"Ugh, that creep?" Gayle made a face of disgust, "she can do MUCH better." 

"Oh, come on," Julia rolled her eyes, "he's really nice to her! Besides, she's totally gone on him!"

"Poor thing."

"Alright then," Julia shifted subjects, "how about you and Jacen? How's that going?"

"Not to quickly," Gayle sighed regretfully, "I mean, face it, he's in a whole other Force league than we are! We never get to spend time together. Not to mention his whole thing for Tenel Ka."

"Right, okay, so there's a bust," Julia sighed, "No worries, plenty of other fish in the sea."

"I haven't seen you doing any `fishing` since Tom dissappeared," Gayle retorted.

"That's different," Julia said quietly. The two were quiet for a moment, Gayle not knowing what to say, and Julia not saying anything.

"Have you noticed Master Skywalker lately?" Gayle asked eventually, "He seems almost depressed."

"Yeah," Julia replied, her voice back to normal, "He really-"

"Needs a girlfriend?" Gayle finished.

"Well, I was thinking more along the lines of needs a vacation and another hole in the head, but yeah, a girlfriend would do," Julia replied, half sarcastic, "This is where someone brings up Callista right?"

~**~**~**~**~

Callista walked down the street shoulders slumped. If she didn't find a job soon, she would run out of credits. That wasn't the only thing to worry about. She missed Luke terribly, and she still had no idea how to get her Jedi powers back. She had been away from Luke for so long. It had been, what, at least ten years since she'd... they'd spoken. It seems almost hopeless. Well one more world, she would try one more world and then she'd give up, then she'd know she could never see Luke again. She looked down at the ground, at her feet. Her shoes were horribly tattered and worn. Before she left the planet, she would defiantly need a job.

~**~**~**~**~

When Julia and Gayle arrived at the Blueleaf Cluster Temple, they immeadiately knew something was very wrong. There were around a dozen Jedi Trainees passed out on the ground, holding onto little, adorable, energy draining pittens. Gayle and Julia did the first thing they could thing of as Jedi-to be and Sailor Warriors.

They ran.

"Okay, what do we do?" Julia asked, slightly panicked.

"Hey, you've been doing this longer than I have," Gayle reminded her, "We really have only one option here."

"Right, Venus power transform!"

"Moon prism power transform!"

  
  


Inside the temple, one of the pittens stood and slowly morphed into a humanoid cat. "Meow, Master Jadite, I've drained several of the humans, it's so easy to trap them!" she reported. A man with short blonde hair and blue eyes materialized in front of her. He was wearing boots, and navy pants and jacket that buttoned up at his shoulder with a red strip on them.

"Good work Mew, keep it up," he told her.

"Hold it, right there!" Mew and Jadite turned at the sound of Sailor Moon's voice, and Jadite dissapeared in a flash of crystals.

"Take care of them," his bodyless voice instructed.

"Codename: Sailor V! I am the ally of lonely, weak cats! For love and beauty I am the sailor suited beautiful girl soldier Sailor Venus!"

"Lonely, weak cats?!" Moon asked, "These are pittens! Where are you getting this stuff!?"

"Meh," Venus shrugged.

"Meow!" Mew growled, "Ally of weak cats!? I won't be persuaded by the calling voices of cats! There's no way you can beat me, Mew, princess of the cat world! Kill her, my servants!"

"Hey, wait! I haven't done my intro yet!" Sailor Moon exclaimed as the pittens started their attack.

"Crescent beam!" Venus shot her beam right in front of all the pittens so they were forced back. "Sailor V kick!" she kicked Mew in the chest and sent her flying.

"Quit hogging all the action!" Moon yelled ather partner as Mew slammed into a wall.

"Then be quicker!" Venus replied, "You gotta stay ahead in this game!"

"For peace and justice I am the sailor suited beautiful girl soldier Sailor Moon!" she said, not to be deprived of her soliliquy, "For the final move! Moon tiara stardust!" the tiara floated over Mew and the pittens. They all dissapeared.

"Let's go, it's almost suppertime!" Moon said. Venus nodded and the two of them dashed out of the temple and transformed back into their alter-egos.

"Did you catch a glimps of that guy with Mew?" Julia asked Gayle as they made their way back to the Great Temple.

Gayle grimaced, "Yeah, Jadeite," she replied.

"So, at least we're into familiar territory here," Julia tried to look on the bright side of having more enemies to fight so soon after they'd defeated the last. The two girls were silent the rest of the way to the dinning hall of the Great Temple, save when they met up with their friends, Jaina, Jacen and Leanne.

"Hey, where have you guys been?" Leanne asked.

"Yeah, would never have figured Julia to be this late for a meal," Jaina added. Julia just stuck her tongue out at Jaina. The group was engaged in a friendly conversation about how edible the food would be today, when they ran into Zekk, well Gayle was the one who actually ran into him.

"Hey Tinsel Teeth, how can you train to become a Jedi when you can't even watche where you're going?" he asked after he saw who had run into him.

"Never call me Tinsel Teeth again, street rat!" Gayle said sternly. Zekk stepped in line beside Jaina and Jacen.

"Sure thing, Tinsel Teeth," he ignored Gayle, struggling to maintain her calm and put his arm around Jaina. Jaina almost melted, and Gayle almost gagged.

"Come on Gayle, he is kinda cute, and you know better than Jaina herself that she has a crush on him," Julia whispered to her friend.

"Yeah, but does she have to hang all over him like that, uhg," Gayle replied, quoting the Sailor Moon cartoon.

  
  


After supper, Luke Skywalker gathered Julia, Gayle, Zekk and a few other trainees in his office. "I gathered you here today to give you the next major step in becoming a Jedi," Luke told them. Gayle and Julia exchanged knowing glances, "I have decided that you are now read to start training with lightsabers. If you prove yourself able to handle them, then you will be building ones of your own. A lightsaber is an important part of a Jedi, not only is it a way to identify him, but it acts as an extension of their being," Luke went on about lightsabers for a while, then told the trainees to report to the lightsaber training ground first thing tomorrow afternoon.

After he had dismissed the trainees, Julia hung back and waited for the room to clear, "Master Skywalker?" she asked.

"Yes?"

"Well, I was wondering, it will be kinda hard to get crystals around here, I mean, the only one Tenel Ka found was faulty and it took her a while, but Jaina and Jacen and Lowie got to go to Gem Diver station, and they were able to find themselves corusca gems," Julia took the round about approach to her request, "So I was wondering-"

"I see your poing, and I'll see what I can do," Luke smiled in a way that made Julia sure he was having trouble not laughing at her.

"Thank-you Master Skywalker," Julia thanked him, then left to join Gayle, who was waiting outside the door with Leanne.

"He's a Jedi Master, I don't think that sucking up will help you much," Gayle told her friend, shaking her head.

"It's automatic, remember? Bettina and I used to make a living of it," Julia replied with a shrug.

"So what'd ya ask?" Gayle inquired.

"I asked if we could take a trip to Gem Diver Station," Julia answered.

"Is Lando still running that?" Leanne asked. The books made it abundantly clear that Lando never ended up doing something for more than a few years until he found his next scheme.

"Meh," Julia and Gayle shrugged, "We'll find out soon enough, won't we?"

~**~**~**~**~

Callista looked around at the shops in line, searching the windows for a "Help Wanted" sign. She walked slowly making sure she drank in all the details. "What am I looking for?" She whispered to herself under her breath. Callista walked down street after street well past dark. Finally she found a place she could work. A waitress didn't get paid much, but it was a start. She sat down outside the store and waited for morning to come so the store would open and she could reestablish her finances. After a few minutes of waiting, she fell asleep.

~**~**~**~**~

"Help me! Please, help!" both Gayle and Julia heard the cry, and they were both outside at the entrance to the Great Temple in as little time possible.

"You heard it too?" Gayle asked her friend.

"Yeah, apparently we're the only ones," Julia replied.

"Help, Sailor Warriors! Help meeeeehhh!" the voice came again, in a more urgent tone.

"Well that explains it," Julia shrugged, "I think it was coming from over there," she pointed. Gayle and Julia set off in that direction.

"Did the ending of that last me sound anything like a whinney to you?" Gayle asked as they jogged.

"Yeah," Julia agreed, then she chuckled, "well, so much for that streak peace and quite we had. It lasted what, a week?" Gayle rolled her eyes as the two friends followed the voice until they found the origin of the sound.

Tangled in some vines hanging from a tree was a unicorn. She would have been an awe inspiring, beautiful sight had it not been for the hungry piranha beetles swarming to eat her. The unicorn vainly kicked and pulled at the vines, trying to ger free and fight the beetles all at once.

"Oh my God," Gayle exclaimed breathlessly.

"No time for that now," Julia told her, picking up a large branch from the ground, "We have a unicorn to save," with that, she began batting the piranah beetles away from the unicorn. Gayle, realizing it was time for action, climbed up the tree and began cutting away at the vines holding the unicorn's horn with her swiss army knife.

Soon enough, the unicorn was able to pull her horn away. In a brilliant flash of white light, her wounds were healed, and the piranah beetles were pushed back. As the unicorn skewered one with her horn, the rest decided the prey was no longer worth it, and flew off.

"Thank-you, Sailor Warriors," the unicorn said in a voice that rebervrated in Julia and Gayle's heads, skipping their ears.

"It was our pleasure," Julia bowed slightly, "Gayle would thank you as well, but she's afraid of heights and is working up the courage to climb down."

fter a bit of coaxing, Gayle made it shakily to the ground, and the attention focused on the supposedly mythological creature once more, "So, uh, I guess you know we're Sailor Warriors, I'm Venus, but in this form, my name is Julia," Julia introduced herself.

"I'm Sailor Moon," Gayle said, "and my real name is Gayle."

"I know your Warrior forms," Whinney told them, "I knew you a long, long time ago, and recognize you know, despite the changes. Then, you called me Whinney, as you should now."

"Someone's coming," Julia announced. She had her eyes closed, and her brows slightly furrowed indicating concentration on the Force. Gayle took a minute to check for herself, and nodded in agreement.

"I'll go see who it is," she announced. Gayle slunk off through the brush, to see Skywalker sitting on a rock with his back to her.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, without turing around. Gayle stepped out of the bushes.

"Just helping a friend," she replied, "and you?" Gayle furrowed her brow as she caught a wiff of his emotions through the Force, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he answered quickly. Then he sighed, "I just had a dream that reminded me of someone," he admitted, "someone I met a while ago. We were close."

"Callista?" Gayle asked. Skywalker sighed. "Don't worry, you two will get back together," Gayle told him, "You were hotter than Serena and Darien, and nothing can stop love."

"How will be able to be together?" he asked disparingly, "We can't until she can touch the Force again."

Gayle rolled her eyes, "Is that all that's stopping you?" she sighed, "listen, you two were meant to be together. Trust me."

  
  


When Gayle got back to Julia and Whinney, she explained what was the matter with Master Skywalker, "And why can this, Callista, not touch the Force?" Whinney asked.

"Well, when trying to stop a ship from blowing up a planet, Callista's body died, but her soul remained in the computers of the ship," Gayle explained to the slightly confused unicorn, "then Luke Skywalker and Cray and a few droids were brought onto the ship. Due to the fact that her love had died, Cray no longer wanted to live, and so when the rest of them were escaping the ship, Cray let Callista take over her body."

Whinney looked contemplative, "It must be the fact that, to the Force, she is dead, or at least supposed to be," Julia voulenteered, "That's my theory, anyway."

Whinney shook her head and snorted a little, "No, it's because the soul and body aren't properly joined."

Gayle and Julia exchanged an excited glance, "So you can fix it?" they asked.

Whinney nodded, "but we need to contact her first. Put your hands on my horn, I'll need your energy for this as well." Julia and Gayle did as told, very cautiously; it seemed a large breech of ettiquet, even with permission.

"Woah, talk about a power rush," Julia muttered as her hand contacted witht he silver spiral. She fought her first instinct, to pull the power into herself, and instead did the opposite, and channeld her own energy into the horn as Gayle did the same.

"It's not enough," Whinney strained to talk. Gayle took out her transformation locket, and Julia took out her transformation wand.

"Venus Power!" she yelled, the rush of power drawn from her original planet was quickly pulled into the horn.

"Moon Power!" Gayle yelled, and her power was also drawn into the horn by the pressing need for more energy. The combined energy of the two Sailor Warriorsr was all that Whinney needed and a silver tinged blue ball of energy formed at the tip of her horn. A moment later, it shot skyward making enough noise to alert a deaf person on the other side of the galaxy. Then, Gayle and Julia blacked out.

~**~**~**~**~

When Gayle came too, she was lying on her bed in her room at The Jedi Academy. Leanne, Julia and Luke were in her room as well. The second they noticed she was awake, they all crowded around her bed.

"Welcome to the land of the living, sleepy head," Leanne said with a smiled.

Julia snorted, "What took you?"

"Well I'm sorry," Gayle replied hautily, "but I'm not used to dealing with energy like you are!"

"Oh, don't let her fool you," Luke chuckled, "she was worse off then you were to start with. She just happened to start draining energy from anyone who touched her. It took three tries to get her onto the gurney."

Julia stuck her tongue out at his back, "Anyway, now that sleeping beauty here is awake, we can go to the Gem Diver Station."

"Hold on a minute," Skywalker said.

"Yeah, I need to take a shower and get dressed and everything!" Gayle finished for him. By Luke's face, that was obviously not what he was going to say, "I'm alright, don't worry," Gayle assured.

"Alright, I'll start preping the _Shadow Chaser_," he told her, and left as did Leanne. Julia, however, hung back a bit to update Gayle on the whole endeavour that had brought about this situation in the first place.

"So what did we say?" Gayle asked.

"Callista, if you would like to be reunited with the Force and Luke Skywalker, come to Yavin 4 in secret, and contact Julia and Gayle," Julia recited.

"All that energy just for that?!" Gayle demanded, incredulous. Julia sighed.

"Yeah, now hurry up," she told Gayle, heading for the door, "I wanna go to Gem Diver."

~**~**~**~**~

"Eleven, Eleven make a wish," Gayle, well Gayle's droid replacement, chirped into the phone. She closed her eyes for a second and made a wish. When she opened them, the real Gayle's bratty little, sister Robin was in front of her.

"Get off the phone Gayle, I have an IRC date," Robin demanded. Gayle held up her index finger to indicate her sister to wait a minute.

"I gotta go Jule, Robin has to get on IRC," Then Gayle said good-bye and hung up the phone. Robin blinked a couple of times in surprise.

"Uh, Gayle, are you okay? You've been acting strange all summer, it's like you're not you. You're too, too, nice," Robin practically choked on the word.

"I just grew up and matured Robin, one day you might even achieve that as well," Gayle replied in a holier-than-thou voice.

"Then how come you hardly ever make any facial expressions?" Robin countered. Gayle pulled her head back a bit and furrowed her brow.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Nice try, who are you, I mean really," Robin asked suspiciously.

"Don't you have a IRC date waiting?" Gayle asked. Robin squinted maliciously at her supposed sister.

"This conversation isn't over Gayle," Robin spat viciously. Then as she left she turned and added, "If that is your real name."

~**~**~**~**~

"You'd leave us here?!" Leanne exclaimed, throwing her arms up into the air, "I can't believe you!"

"Oh come on," Gayle rolled her eyes, "We've made plenty of other friends. I miss home-"

"That secluded, polluted, little hunk of space debris!?" Julia asked.

"-and I want an education," Gayle finished.

"You've wanted this your whole life, and now you want to go home?" Leanne verified.

"Talk about flippant," Julia sighed, "Look, we know you won't go Dark Side without the training or anything, but really, I mean come on!"

"Well, really you two aren't the ones I'm going to have to convince are you?" Gayle raised an eyebrow. Julia sighed and Leanne nodded. They both understood Gayle's homesickness, to a certain degree, and they both understood Luke's paranoia about his students.

  
  


"-please Master Skywalker? I can take a comm and Julia can send me all your lectures, and I could practice everything on my own," Gayle told him. She had a second motive for wanting to go home. It was true she was incredibly homesick, but the news they had caught from Earth brought wind of trouble brewing, in form of monsters from the Negamoon. Sailor Moon had a duty to be there.

"You know the dangers of skipping out on your Jedi training," Luke started.

"But she won't be skipping out, she just gave you a solution to that," Julia cut in, a frown on her face, "Let's face it, this is GAYLE! She spent a month sucking up to Brakiss and STILL didn't go Dark Side, you expect her to turn just because she spends a little time back home?"

"I have always been a pacifist," Gayle told him, "And you know I've already studied the Force enough to be able to avoid going Dark Side."

"Hell, there's more chance of ME going Dark Side," Julia added, "and I'll be here year round."

Luke sighed, "When do you need to go back?"

"Soon," Gayle told him, "School starts at the beginning of September, and August is wrapping up quickly."

"We can leave the day after tomorrow."

~**~**~**~**~

"You'll get used to it my ass," Julia rolled out of bed and hit the floor with a thud as she attempted to get up at the crack of dawn. She'd been doing this every day for two months, and it still wasn't any easier. After dressing, there came the telltale beep of someone outside her door.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm awake!" she shouted at whoever it was, "I'm coming! Go away!"

"My my," Jacen said when Julia joined him, Jaina, Gayle, and Leanne in the hallway, "the difference ten mintues makes to someone's personality."

"Yeah well, I haven't had my caffein yet," Julia muttered grumpily. In truth she didn't usually have any caffeinated beverages in the morning to wake herself up, it really was those extra ten mintues between waking up and stepping out of her room, but she was in no mood to let Jacen think he was right.

The day before, Luke Skywalker had announced to the entire academy that he was declaring a small holiday. For about a month, since it would take him two week sto get to Earth and back. Tionne was staying with the students who wished to remain, since they'd never found Streen.

Gayle, Julia, Leanne, Jacen and Jaina walked to the docking bay and filed into the _Shadow Chaser_. Luke was already there prepping the ship, and making sure their baggage was properly stored.

"I can't wait to see Earth," Jacen announced as they strapped in, "It sounds peaceful."

"Ha!" Julia laughed.

"You know," Gayle started, "It is your home planet, you might want to be a little bit more supportive."

"Oh," Julia corrected her friend, "the planet's alright, I have nothing against it. It's just the inhabitants I have a problem with."

  
  


Four days into the trip home, Julia was bored stiff. She'd finished the book she was reading, and had no blank paper to draw, she didn't even have a deck of cards to play solitair, or sabbacc for that matter, "Gayle I'm bored!" she whined for the millionth time that afternoon.

"I told you, go bug Jacen," Gayle replied. Julia turned to Jacen.

"Jacen I'm-" Julia's bordum was instantly relieved as the _Shadow Chaser _was violently pulled out of hyperspace. Luke and Jaina ran to the cockpit to see what had gone wrong. Once they looked out the view screen they immeadiately saw the problem, an Imperial Intradictory Cruiser was sitting there along with a Star Destroyer or two.

Jaina let out a stream of curses to show up her father as she and her Uncle started evasive maneuvers. Unfortunately, they were a bit to late, and the ship shook harshly yet again as a tractor beam caught it.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Jacen muttered.

"Too bad this ship doesn't have removable deck plates," Jaina sighed. Julia all of a sudden grinned.

"Now I'm scared," Jacen grimaced.

"Jaina, you'rea genius!" Julia exclaimed, ignoring Jacen. She grabbed Jaina's lightsaber and started to search out a place she could hide in, along with Gayle, who caught on to the idea. Leanne busied herself with searching for normal hiding spots.

"Here we go!" Gayle pointed to the thick walls between the doors that separated the cockpit from the main area.

"It will take some repairing, but it will probably be worth it," Julia said as she inspected them.

"You aren't suggesting hiding in those things!?" Jaina exclaimed, "Those walls are thick for a reason! There's a ton and a half of wireing in there! If you try cutting them open, you'll electrocute yourself!"

"We'll see about that!" Julia snorted. She ignighted Jaina's lightsaber, but it was pulled from her grasp by the Force. She rolled her eyes, "Well I don't see anyone ELSE giving any bright ideas!"

"How about we just let ourselves be caught?" Luke suggested, "They're obviously not expecting us, or we would have been tractored immeadiately. Chances are, they're not going to have any ysalamiri. Plus, stormtroopers don't check boots."

"Huh?" Leanne asked for clarification.

"Well, Julia and Gayle are wearing pretty high boots, so is Jaina," Luke pointed out, "they're perfect to hide lightsabers in."

"Do you know how uncomfortable that would be?!" Julia demanded. Luke gave her a look, and she stopped arguing. There was the clunk of metal on metal, and the shaking of the ship as it was docked on the inside of what was probably one of the Star Destroyers.

"The Force be with us," Jacen muttered.

"It's always with us," Julia said knowingly, "it's whether it will do any good that's the question."

"Just let me handle this, and remember our cargohold is full of spare parts," Luke said as the ramp lowered. Stormtroopers rushed on with their blasters raised.

Before they got a chance to say anything, Luke started up his sharade, "What in Space is going on here?! We be deliverin' our cargo an' you guys pulls us straight outta hyperspace!" 

The stormtroopers exchanged glances, "We have on record that this ship was stolen from the Empire by one Luke Skywalker, the Jedi Knight."

"I don' know 'bout no Jedi, I bought this ship fair 'n square!" Luke insisted, maintaining his act, "me an' my crew here use it to make shipments."

"I told ya' the price was too good!" Jaina joined in.

"I couldn't pass on a deal like that!" Luke insisted.

"Enough," the head stormtrooper announced, "you're all going to the brig. If this is simply a routine cargo, a quick interrogation will clarify it. Now move."

Reluctant and nervous prisoners were escorted to the brig by about ten stormtroopers. The Imperials were obviously not taking any chances. The six of them were thrown unceremoniously into different cells and told to wait until the interrogator was freed up.

"Oh great, not only are we in cells, but we're alone," Julia rolled her eyes as she muttered to herself, "Oh well, at least we know that they don't have many prisoners... or at least a problem with overcrowded prisons," Julia then shuddered at what that might mean.

"Hey!" she heard Jaina exclaim, "there's a hole here! We can talk to each other."

Julia followed the sound of Jaina's voice to the hole in between cells, "Okay, if I can create a distraction, you'll be able to break out of there, right?" she asked once she'd found the hole.

"Yeah,"Jaina replied, "Make it a good distration, I'll get out quietly and start freeing the others."

"Okay, wait about twenty seconds, then go," she told Jaina. Then, shutting her eyes, well aware of the ticking clock, Julia calmed herself down, and opened herself up to the Force.

  
  


Luke had just retrieved his lightsaber from his boot when he heard shouts coming from the stormtroopers and guards watching the cell block, "FIRE! FIRE!" he heard one scream.

"Quick! Put it out!"

"Use an extinguisher!" As the extinguisher sprayed, Luke ignighted his lightsaber and jammed it into the wall around where the locking mechanism was. He moved it around until there was a hiss, and his doors swooshed open.

"Great! Look at this, the instruments are fried!"

"What the hell happened? How could a fire just break out like that?"

"Geeze, except for the extinguishing fluids, it doesn't look like there was a fire at all."

"We all saw it!"

"No, you saw an illusion," Luke's eyes went wide as he heard Julia's voice. He stepped out of his cell, lighsaber ready, and saw Julia, unarmed, facing a group of imperial guards. Jaina was helping everyone else out of their cells.

"She'll be killed," Luke whispered.

"Uncle Luke, you trained her, you should know what she's capable of!" Jaina assured him, "she needs to try out her Jedi powers sometimes. The fact that she can't levitate things really limits her chances to actually show herself as a Jedi."

Luke was starting to catch on now, "she can levitate things, but only when she's got extra energy..." Luke trailed off and headed for Julia. He'd missed what the guards had been saying, but they obviously weren't happy, because one of them shot Julia right in the chest.

Julia stood there and took the bolt. He felt a ripple in the Force, and Julia pulled the blasters from the stormtroopers hands and pushed them back at the same time using the energy she'd absorbed from the blaster bolt. The guards who didn't go unconcious from hitting their heads when Julia pushed them back were soon stunned by their own hovering blasters.

With the immeadiate danger subdued, Julia sat down in the middle of the cell bay, "Ouch that stung!" she said, rubbing her chest, "and he put a hole in one of my favourite shirts!"

"You're crazy!" Luke told her, "You could have been killed!"

"Master Skywalker," Julia started in a lecturing tone that sounded vaguely familiar, "you've been training me for two months, and you know well that I can absorb energy easily. Large amounts, if I'm prepared for it. You don't think I'd do something like that if I wasn't sure I could handle it now do you?"

"That was incredibly dangerous," Luke continued his lecture, "you may have learned a lot about the Force in the last two months, but without control it means nothing. You could have lost control of all that energy and seriously injured yourself or one of us!"

"But I didn't, did I?" Julia smirked.

"Alright, those Imps won't stay fooled for long," Jaina announced, "the cameras are fried but I bet you any money that they're on their way up here. Let's get moving."

Everyone piled into the elevator, and Luke took over," Alright, you five get to the _Shadow Chaser,_ I'll take care of the tractor beam and meet you there.

"Right," Gayle nodded, "just no pulling an Obi-Wan Kenobi on us."

"No chance," Skywalker assured his students, "just make it to the ship in once piece, or Leia will have my head," the doors to the elevator opened, and the group all stepped out, Luke headed off in one direction while Jacen, Jaina, Leanne, Julia and Gayle headed in the other, "May the Force be with you!" Luke called over his shoulded.

Gayle waved, "you too!"

  
  


As the group of five arrived at a fork in the road, they all stopped to try and figure out the best way to go, "Well, why don't we split up and go both ways?" Julia suggested. Suddenly the lights dimmed and red emergency lights flashed once, then everything went back to normal.

"Something tells me they know we're here," Leanne muttered.

"If we split up, we'll be harder to catch," Jaina said, "Come on Julia, Leanne, you two are with me. Jacen, you and Gayle go that way."

"See you at the _Shadow Chaser,_" Julia called to Gayle as they split up.

Gayle grinned, "not if I see you first!"

Luke Skywalker roamed through the halls of the Star Destroyer. He was absolutely sure that his trainees could take care of themselves, after all, they had gotten out of their cells no problem. And yet, some part in Luke was worrying overtime. 

Perhaps it was because his niece and nephew were in that group, and if they got so much as a scratch, Leia would kill him.

  
  


"Jacen behind you!" Gayle warned as she fired a blast at the stormtrooper in front of her. Jacen turned around and took care of the problem. "I hope Julia, Leanne and your sister are okay," she added as they broke into a run.

"They must be fine! All the stormtroopers in this place are coming after us!"

"Hey," Gayle asked as she came to a halt at a broken pipe dripping an odd coloured liquid. She poked the liquid with the barrel of her blaster.

"What is it?" Jacen asked.

Gayle smiled and thought of Julia for an instant, then quoted X-Files, "I dunno, but if this is monkey pee, you're on your own."

"Monkey?" Jacen inquired. Gayle shook her head and stood.

"It's probably just coolant," she replied, pointing at the broken pipe. A blaster fired at that instant, and Gayle and Jacen tore through an open doorway, then came to an abrupt stop at the edge of a bridge that seemed to be missing. As a stormtrooper fired, Jacen hit the door close button. He then punched another button, and nothing happened.

"What is it?"

"Well, you remember that coolant leak back there?" he asked. Gayle looked at him, still confused, "they don't work."

"They're coming through, and there's no lock," Jacen pulled Gayle to his left side, and ignighted his lightsaber straight through the conrols, "That should work."

"Here, hold this," Jacen gave Gayle his blaster and started pulling some chording out of his utility belt.

Gayle, a blaster in each hand, started firing at the opposite end of the bridge, where some stormtroopers had appeared, giving Jacen the time he needed to get a suitable amout of fibrecord out of his utility belt. Jacen threw the fibercord up around an air vent hanging from the ceiling and put his arm around Gayle.

"Hang on," he told her. Gayle grinned at the familiarity of the situation, shrugged to herself and then kissed Jacen on the cheek.

"For luck," she explained. Jacen looked at her a bit confused, then swung across the bridge.

  
  


Luke was still busy slinking down the halls, imagining the horrid things that Leia would do to him when he heard two stormtroopers coming. He was in the middle of a bridge and wouldn't be able to reach the end before they would see him, so Luke quickly ducked around a round console attached to the bridge. Out of sheer luck, this was one of the tractor beam control pannels.

As the stormtroopers talked cars, Luke cut off the power to the tractor beam then distracted them with the Force and slipped by. His danger sense tingled, and Luke ignighted his lightsaber. He pressed himself up against the wall and waited. A whole platoon of stormtroopers then rounded the corner.

They opened fire almost immeadiately, and it took some fancy saber work to get himself enough room to maneuver. Luke, with his back to the wall, was now surrounded by firing stormtroopers. He took a deep breath and let the Force guide his lightsaber. Hopefully he could keep this up until their blasters ran out of power or something...

Suddenly, three stormtroopers fell to the floor. In their places stood Jaina, Leanne and Julia. The stormtroopers were torn between targets for a second, and that was all Luke needed. He locked on his lightsaber, then threw it in a Force guided arch that whirled through where every stormtrooper was standing. It was incredibly messy, but in this case necessary.

"Ew," Leanne said flatly, looking at the carnage.

"Are you okay Uncle Luke?" Jaina asked her uncle.

"I'm fine, where are Jacen and Gayle?" he asked, all the horrid images of Leia mangling and maiming him that he'd pictured earlier springing to his mind.

"We split up," Gayle told him, "they're fine." Luke breathed a sigh of relief.

"Did you get the tractor beam down?" Jaina asked. Luke nodded. The group headed towards the docking bay.

  
  


Jacen and Gayle arrived at the docking bay a few seconds before Julia, Jaina, Leanne and Skywalker did. They all peered out at the _Shadow Chaser_ and the stormtroopers surrounding it from behind some barrels. "Do you think they did anything to it?" Gayle asked.

"Looks fine," Jaina reported, "we just can't get over there."

"Anyone else see an opportunity in that barrel percariously perched above that large thing of equipment?" Julia pointed over to the right of their ship. There was indeed a goup of barrels on a platform above ground level, one half falling alread, directly above a case of rather sensitive looking equipment. The group looked at her, then looked at the barrel, then they all looked at Luke Skywalker.

"Get ready to run, on three," he told them. The trainees got into a better starting position for their dash to the ship and Luke shut his eyes to concentrate. "One, two, three!"

The barrel came toppling down onto all the equipment with a very loud crash. The stromtroopers guarding the ship immeadiately ran over to the equipment and to the platform to check for intruders while the techies wailed and moaned and tried to get the barrel off the thousands of credits worth of equipment.

Jaina and Luke headed straight for the cockpit and immeadiately started to takeoff, blasting at the docking bay shield controls as they left. The _Shadow Chaser_ broke away from the Star Destroyer and into space. "Time for more manoevering," Luke told Jaina.

"At least that blasted Intradictory Cruiser has it's grav. field turned off," she replied as she spun the ship into some barrel rolls.

"Alright, coordinates locked in, let's get outta here!" Luke told her. Jaina pulled back on the hyperspace lever, the stars zoomed by and they were safe.

In the main cabin, Julia turned to Gayle, "thank god for safety harnesses," she muttered. Gayle gave her a look.

"And you wonder why I want to go home."

"Constantly."

To be continued...


End file.
